Missing Man: The American Spy Who Vanished in Iran

by Barry Meier Narrated by Ray Porter

Overview

In late 2013, Americans were shocked to learn that a former FBI agent turned private investigator who disappeared in Iran in 2007 was there on a mission for the CIA. The missing man, Robert Levinson, appeared in pictures dressed like a Guantánamo prisoner and pleaded in a video for help from the United States.

Barry Meier, an award-winning investigative reporter for the New York Times, draws on years of interviews and never-before-disclosed CIA files to weave together a riveting narrative of the ex-agent's journey to Iran and the hunt to rescue him. The result is an extraordinary tale about the shadowlands between crime, business, espionage, and the law, where secrets are currency and betrayal is commonplace. Its colorful cast includes CIA operatives, Russian oligarchs, arms dealers, White House officials, gangsters, private eyes, FBI agents, journalists, and a fugitive American terrorist and assassin.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

05/02/2016
New York Times reporter Meier crafts a gripping account of the life and disappearance of Bob Levinson, a DEA and FBI agent turned PI, who vanished in Iran in 2007. Levinson's work for the Feds gave him a wealth of experience with complex investigations, including cases against the Mafia, Colombian drug cartels, and Russian organized crime, through which he made important connections in the world of intelligence gathering. That background came in handy when he entered the private sector in 2004. Before long, he was retained by the CIA to assist a new unit focusing on illicit international finance, a group that found his comprehensive reports educational and invaluable. By 2006, the Illicit Finance Group had been tasked to gather intel that could be used against the leaders of Iran, and when that responsibility was passed on to Levinson, he made the risky journey to meet an American-born terrorist, an assignment from which he never returned. Meier presents a moving account of Levinson's family, who struggle to come to terms with his still unresolved fate and are desperately trying to get the U.S. government to help find him, while shining a much-needed light on the murky world of private intelligence contractors. (May)

From the Publisher

A Time Magazine Best Book of 2016

“Constructed as a nonfiction thriller, Missing Man is at its core a tragedy, Death of a Salesman in the Persian Gulf." —Karl Vick, Time

"Meier's fascinating cat-and-mouse tale about government cover-ups, bungled investigations and the Levinson family's anguished pursuit of the truth is straight out of a Homeland episode." —People

“Barry Meier’s Missing Man is an artful piece of investigative reporting . . . Meier has finely choreographed Bob Levinson’s story, and brought it into the light from the shadow world where most US governmental agencies seem to have wish it had stayed. Meier’s style is brio and dash, always with a trail of crumbs, while handfuls of grit and episodes of hateful behavior are thrown in for texture.” —Peter Lewis, The Christian Science Monitor

“Intrigue abounds in Missing Man . . . It exposes the storied workings of global spycraft . . . Fascinating.” —Jeff Sharlett, Bookforum

“The tale of Robert Levinson . . . underscores the dangers of the multi-headed bureaucratic monster called the CIA.” —Valerie Plame, The Washington Post

“Important and troubling . . . Judging by Meier's account, if there ever was a case for blowing up the CIA and starting over, the Levinson affair is it.” —Jeff Stein, Newsweek


"The CIA's side of this story remains classified. But Barry Meier's book, Missing Man, provides more than enough information to make sense of Mr. Levinson's tragic trip to Kish." —Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Wall Street Journal

"Gripping . . . Meier presents a moving account of Levinson's family, who struggle to come to terms with his still unresolved fate and are desperately trying to get the U.S. government to help find him, while shining a much-needed light on the murky world of private intelligence contractors." —Publishers Weekly

“In this comprehensive and sometimes chilling report on the circumstances surrounding Levinson’s disappearance and subsequent efforts to find him, New York Times reporter and Pulitzer finalist Meier turns Levinson’s story into a case study on the complicated and politically messy nature of modern-day espionage . . . A sharply written, if often unsettling, exposé of the contemporary intelligence world.” —Booklist

“A chilling real-world espionage yarn.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“With the pace and tension of a classic thriller and the keen eye of a seasoned journalist, Barry Meier gives us a true story of the human beings behind the headlines of Middle Eastern turmoil. A great, highly recommended read.”
—James Grady, author of Six Days of the Condor

“Fortunately this book is listed as non-fiction, otherwise I would not have believed the story it tells. Kafka could not have invented a more bizarre landscape than this one. Cat and mouse, reality and fantasy, Iran and the United States—all are mixed into a devil's brew of espionage, wild exploits, triple-crosses and still-unsolved mysteries. ” —Stephen Kinzer, author of All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

Library Journal - Audio

06/15/2016
Meier (Pain Killer: A Wonder Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death) reveals the sordid tale of the U.S. government's inept and inadequate attempts to rescue former FBI agent Robert Levinson from captivity in Iran. Levinson, the longest held hostage in U.S. history, disappeared in 2007 while on a mission for the CIA. After years of denying any knowledge of Levinson, the CIA was forced to admit its association with him after documents were disclosed proving the relationship. In the years that Levinson has been missing, several other Americans held captive in Iran have been released after concessions to the Iranian government. Friends and relatives of Levinson have done everything possible to keep his plight at the forefront, but since his last sighting in a 2013 video, his friends and family don't know if he is dead or alive. This book describes many attempts to learn Levinson's whereabouts and his status. The sleuths include journalists, retired and current FBI and CIA operatives, arms dealers, gangsters, Russian oligarchs, and family members. Ray Porter's compelling narration keeps listeners engaged in this complex, riveting tale. VERDICT This work will engage lovers of true crime and mysteries and those with an interest in relations between the United States and Iran. ["Fans of spy thrillers, both fiction and nonfiction, foreign policy, and FBI and CIA clandestine operations will be engrossed with this work": LJ 6/1/16 starred review of the Farrar hc.]—Ann Weber, Los Gatos, CA

Library Journal

★ 06/01/2016
Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times reporter Meier (Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death) shares the story of Robert "Bob" Levinson's capture in Iran. Levinson was an FBI agent who specialized in finding informants to infiltrate criminal organizations. After he retired from the bureau, he became an independent consultant and began to work for the CIA. In 2007, he flew from Dubai to the small Iranian island Kish to meet a potential Iranian informant. This would be the last time anyone would see Levinson for four years, at which time a video surfaced that showed him talking to the camera as a hostage. Levinson's family, colleagues, CIA handlers, as well as Russian oligarchs, arms dealers, and a secret religious society tried to secure his release. Levinson's emails, notes, and files were used by Meier to reconstruct the last months before the kidnapping and the events leading up to the present. The story reads like a spy thriller, including betrayal, incompetence, failed negotiations, and cover-ups from government officials. VERDICT Fans of espionage accounts, both fiction and nonfiction, foreign policy, and FBI and CIA clandestine operations will be engrossed by this work. [See Prepub Alert, 11/9/15.]—Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

Kirkus Reviews

2016-03-27
The unsettling tale of Bob Levinson, a private investigator gone missing in Iran.New York Times reporter Meier (Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death, 2003, etc.) does admirable work in tying together the threads around Levinson's 2007 disappearance, which has received sporadic coverage alongside the thorny relationship between the United States and Iran. For years, writes the author, "the explanation that U.S. government officials were giving out publicly to explain Bob's reason for visiting Iran wasn't true." Levinson, a retired FBI agent with a large family, was supplementing his income as an international corporate investigator focused on product counterfeiting by marketing information to the CIA's Illicit Finance Group. His handlers, who would deny the relationship after the disappearance, greatly valued his raw intelligence: "A ‘gold mine,' that's what the CIA was calling him." Traveling to an Iranian coastal island to meet with a notorious American fugitive, Levinson's disappearance escalated into a diplomatic morass, with the FBI reluctantly investigating the CIA's initial obfuscation and Levinson's grieving family and friends making their own inquiries. The prevailing assumption was that Levinson was seized by Iranian intelligence, whose "agencies believed there was no such thing as a retired FBI agent." Throughout the book, the case takes dramatic turns, including a tense meeting between Levinson's wife and the Iranian U.N. ambassador; the censure of his handlers, "the strongest disciplinary actions taken by the agency in decades"; and the scandal from the exposure of the agency's role. However, Levinson remained out of reach. Meier constructs a clear narrative that still becomes convoluted, as individuals from the U.S., Europe, and Iran insert themselves and their shady motivations into the mystery. He relies heavily on written communications between Levinson, his friends and handlers, and his pursuers, which adds documentation but also slackens the pace. A chilling real-world espionage yarn.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171738778
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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